Story+1984-10-19+Tacoma,+WA

”Thanks, hello....I feel so much better (chuckles)....”
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘Atlantic City’:**

”Thank you, alright.....(?)....this is uh....this is a song about, uh....I guess, blood ties..... and uh....and duty.....and what happens when those things....collide....”
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘Highway Patrolman’:**

”You people are very silly out there (chuckles)(cheers)....let’s get my moves together now....alright....this is a song.....about how all things....must pass.....here’s a song about how time marches on.....no matter what you do....it’s how everybody gets older every day....now....some people....get older quicker than other people....by the time I was about 27, I already felt like I was about 32....by the time I was 30, I felt like I was about 35.....so I’m just catching up to myself....now, Clarence, he’s way ahead of me... but he maintains his youthful beauty (cheers)....anybody out there old as Clarence ? (cheers)....you, no, you ain’t old as Clarence.....anybody out there old as me ? (cheers)....oh damn, alright, are you ready Big Man ?....with age, there comes, uh, what is it ?....foolishness ?....wisdom, wisdom....there comes, uh....sexual perversity, I think, that’s right (chuckles)(cheers)....I knew something came with age but I couldn’t think of what it was (chuckles)...alright but you see.....”
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘Glory Days’:**

”Thanks, this is uh....here’s a song, it’s kinda....about sharing some of the responso-bility of the place that you live.....and uh....sometimes.....I know now that when I was a kid that I used to have a real love-hate-relationship with the place that I grew up.....I felt like I didn’t wanna.....I didn’t wanna belong there....guess I was afraid of belonging to something....but uh....right here in your town, there’s uh.....there’s an organization called Northwest Harvest (cheers).....an uh.....what they do is....is they do something real simple, they feed people....people that’ve been.....cut out by....some of the injustices in our social system or by the economic policies....of the current administration (cheers)...there’s uh.....there’s people out there that are....they’re just hungry, they need something to eat...and uh.....the name of the organization is Northwest Harvest...and they can use....if you got extra food....you got anything that you can give ‘em.....their number’s gonna be out on the concession stands during the break....and they’re here in your town trying to make it, uh....more decent place to live....so....if you get a chance, you should check ‘em out and help ‘em out....’cause this is your hometown....”
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘My Hometown’:**

"...I'm stuck in traffic here in Tacoma Dome-a (giggles)(crowd cheers).... (...) Ladies and gentlemen: a historical person (Clarence goes into his saxophone solo)..." ”Thanks, oh.....oh, this is, uh....a song I wanna dedicate.....to, uh.....when I was ..... when I was 16...and I was getting (?) rock and roll records....taking ‘em home and.... like one of the little....stereos that come in like a little box....trying to figure out the leads on ‘em.....I was lucky to have, uh, uh.....a good friend that I met then and is been...I guess one of my very best friends.....for my life, who’s not here tonight, his name is Little Steven (cheers)...and uh.....he’s just put out a record called Voice of America.....which....uh, is really, it’s a really great rock and roll record....and....it´s called Voice of America by Little Steven if you get a chance.....pick it up, I....I don’t think you’d be disappointed.....it’s a real important record....so this is for him.... wherever he may be....”
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, middle of "Sherry Darling"**
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘No Surrender’:**

”Now this is a story.....happened a long long time ago.....in a far away place way back east.... (.....) Now there I was....I was still in high school....but I was having a real hard time.....wasn’t doing any good at my studies.....was getting in trouble all the time.....I just couldn’t, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with myself, I didn’t know what I wanted to be, where I was gonna go...so they sent me down to guidance counsellor.... I go down to guidance counsellor and I sit there on a chair.....he says ‘Mr.Springsteen.... what’s the problem ?’ (cheers).....I said ‘Look.....see, I don’t have no faith, I don’t have no hope....I don’t know.....I don’t know what I wanna do with myself....I don’t know what I wanna be....I don’t know where I wanna go’.....he says ‘That’s....that’s too big a problem for me, you better go home and talk to your folks’...so I go home.... I go in the kitchen.....my dad’s sitting at the kitchen table....I say ‘Dad....I gotta....I´m in real trouble here and I gotta talk to you for a minute....you see....I don’t know what I wanna do with myself....I don’t know what I wanna be.....I’m all confused, I got no faith or nothing, I got no hope or nothing....I just don’t know what, you know....I don’t know what’s gonna happen here’....and he said....and he said ‘Get me another beer out of the icebox’ (cheers).....so I was just about to give up....I was gonna end it all...finish it all off....hitchhiked down to Asbury Park (cheers)...I snuck in this little bar...went into mens’room and on the wall.....there was a phone number.....it said ‘Clarence ‘He who knows all’ Clemons (cheers).....For palm-reading, advice, fortune-telling.....call this number’....I called the number ....phone rang once.....phone rang twice....(Clarence : ‘Hello....’) (cheers)....I knew I was on the lifeline then.....and so he invited me over to his house....went over, knocked on the door....we kinda sized each other up....decided that we’d make a good team (cheers)....and we went off to find.... the secret of the world (cheers)....now, Clarence happened to have.....happened to have a map....to where this was located.....we got into his Oldsmobile....we started to drive south....south through the pines....down into the heart of New Jersey (cheers)..... through the swamps....it started snowing, it started raining.....it started hailing....we had two flats.....we ran out of gas....broke up the carburetor...cracked an engine block.... but we kept on driving.....but finally....the car died alongside of this dirtroad....and we got out in the middle of the night.....and Clarence said he seemed to remember....that what we were looking for might be just....on the other side...of those.....woods (cheers)....so into the forest we went....it was scary....there was spooky noises coming from every place (cheers)....we bumped into this big shade tree ....we could tell it was a shade tree because...it had its shades on (cheers)....we heard sounds like wolves coming out of the forest (crowd howls)....big lions (crowd roars).....then we heard like....homicidal cows (crowd moos)....and....Big Man, there ain’t....there ain’t no like killer....killer beasts or....no killer squirrels or something in here....nothing that’s gonna, you sure ? .....you sure it’s safe in here ?.....I think I hear something....(yells) and there was this big grizzly bear but instead of trying to come on us and eat us all up....he was kinda acting friendly...and he said - oh, he gave me a kiss - he said that.... he said that he ran away from the circus...and that he came out into these woods.... and that he wasn’t mean, that he was just lonely....and if we’d be friends, he’d, he’d help us out.... finding the secret of the world....now, I could tell....I could tell by the way he wore his hat that he was....smarter than the average bear (cheers)...and so....so we followed him into the forest....and then all of a sudden, the clouds pulled away from the moon....and there in the clearing....we found the answer to our quest....and then we stood there in the night.....and when.....and when....and when we touched.....
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘Growin’Up’:**

”As Shakespeare said.....’Is you or is you not a rocker ?’....”
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘I’m a Rocker’:**

”I’d like to thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much....we appreciate it....and uh....I’d like to remind you just of....those organizations in your city that are working here to make a better life....for you and for the people that are hurting out there....it’s the Northwest Harvest....they could use your help, that extra food or donation.....feeding people that are hungry....that deserve, uh....deserve a better break....and uh....and the Washington Fair Share, organization that are here.....working for you to combat the toxic waste problem that you have here and a lotta other issues (cheers).....that are....citizens’rights....that are important to everybody who lives here so....”
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘Follow That Dream’:**

”I’m starting to feel good now..... (.....) I can’t do it.....I can’t go on....I’ve been so ill....I’m just getting over it....I still feel so weak....well, shake it-a baby....”
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘Twist and Shout’:**

”Alright now....it’s a little early for this song but....we might not be seeing you so..... go ahead, Roy.... (....) Ah, here he comes.....ah, yeah.....how sweet it is.....now has everybody been good ? (cheers).....you don’t have to be good yet, you can be bad till about November (cheers)....then you gotta be good a little bit.....Big Man, you been good ?....what about the boys in the band ?...what about the girls in the band ?....I don’t know.....here we go.....alright, here we go now....”
 * 19.10.84 Tacoma, WA, intro to ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town’:**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//